Featured

Related Stories

By Nick Sabetti

The Montreal Impact's second round pick signed with Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday but Matt Jordan remains optimistic of the club’s chances of signing the player in the near future

MONTREAL – When it comes to drafts, the Montreal Impact haven’t shied away from taking a gamble or two. Selecting Paolo DelPiccolo in the second round of the 2013 MLS SuperDraft last week certainly had its fair share of risk, as the Louisville native was on trial with Eintracht Frankfurt.

Unfortunately for the Impact, the Bundesliga side decided to sign DelPiccolo on a permanent basis on Tuesday, leaving the Impact empty-handed. But the Impact will still retain DelPiccolo’s MLS rights for the next two years, and director of soccer operations Matt Jordan told reporters on Tuesday that the Impact are still hopeful that DelPiccolo could eventually come their way.

"We knew that there was a good chance that Paolo DelPiccolo would be signed with Eintracht Frankfurt,” Jordan stated. "The nice thing is that it’s a short term deal. We’ve been in contact with the player throughout the process and we have his rights for two years.

"He’s very excited about the possibility of potentially coming here to Montreal, but at the same time its also a good opportunity for him and we didn’t want to hold back either. But the nice thing is that the door is still very much open."

Despite the chances of signing with Frankfurt and remaining abroad for more than two years, Jordan explained that given the quality of the midfielder, using up a second round draft pick for him was well worth the risk.

“Even in the last two days we’ve had three teams try to trade for him,” said Jordan. “He’s a good player, and it’s another player that’s a soccer player and that fits well into the way we want to play and our club identity. If he was at the combine he would have probably been taken middle of the first round. I think most people were a little bit afraid because he was over in Germany, but you got to roll the dice sometimes”.